Happy Halloween

[L Verge]

(10-31-2014 07:28 PM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:  Thanks, Betty and Laurie - great links, especially #2! I hope I didn't overread this: what would the tricks have looked like in times before vandalism?

Good question! I don't know that I have ever seen any reference to early tricks before the 20th century.

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One last tidbit before I turn the lights back on and come out of hiding from trick-or-treaters: I love some of the comments from parents in the first half of the 20th century when trick or treating really became the vogue.

Editorial, Spokane Daily Chronicle, November 6, 1935, p. 4:
In plain fact it is straight New York or Chicago "graft" or "racket" in miniature. Certainly it wouldn't be a good idea for youngsters to go in extensively for this kind of petty "blackmail" on any other date than Halloween. Neither police nor public opinion would stand for that.

"A. Mother", letter to the editor, The Fresno Bee, November 7, 1941, p. 20:
As a mother of two children I wish to register indignation at the "trick or treat" racket imposed on residents on Hallowe'en night by the youngsters of this city.… This is pure and simple blackmail and it is a sad state of affairs when parents encourage their youngsters to participate in events of this kind.

Mrs. B. G. McElwee, letter to the editor, Washington Post, Nov. 11, 1948, p. 12:
The Commissioners and District of Columbia officials should enact a law to prohibit "beggars night" at Hallowe'en. It is making gangsters of children.… If the parents of these children were fined not less than $25 for putting their children out to beg, they would entertain their children at home.

"M.E.G.", letter to column "Ask Anne", Washington Post, Nov. 21, 1948, p. S11:
I have lived in some 20 other towns and cities and I never saw nor heard of the begging practice until about 1936.… The sooner it becomes obsolete here the better. I don't mind the tiny children who want to show off their costumes, but I resent the impudence of the older children.

Lucy Powell Seay, letter to the editor, Washington Post, Oct. 29, 1949, p. 8:
Another year has rolled around and the nightmare of having to put up with the "trick or treat" idea again fills me with dread.